Out of St. Louis and into The Grid.

Phase 2 is in full effect.  Dylan and Rene recorded a wonder reimagining of a song Dylan and I wrote last year. You can listen and download it here. I recorded a song using my loop pedal but it was ten minutes long and to rough to listen to. It is one to kick around a lil more though so it will appear here for sure.

After saying goodbye to Rene and her roomates and Raph the Leopard Cat we hit the road through Indiana, Ill-Noise, and head first into St. Louis.

I hear the Amish are delicious this time of year

Michelle is one of the few people I've stayed in contact with from high school and is always fun to hang out with. She recently moved to St Louis for grad school and is studying computer science there. Michelle got a fantastic place in the university district of St Louis with her wonderfully friendly roommate. We're coming to find that our tour consists of mainly hip areas because all the folks we're visiting live in college towns. She took us out for deep dish pizza at a place called π. Perfectly nerdy with excellently stacked pizza and really great beer. We wandered around and got the vibe of the main drag that Michelle lived two blocks away from. For some reason I could not stop throwing sass at michelle our entire stay (for which I still apologize michelle. It was entirely undeserved. I hope you made a bunch of friends at the barbecue that will help you adventure to other areas of town).

It was a short stay but Dylan and I decided there has been a lack of physical motion on our trip (dance party stretch breaks aside) and seeing as Michelle was on the Tuft's Ultimate Frisbee Team we took a trip to the Zoo park and threw the disc around after breakfast.
                                     

SegwayHeroes ASSEMBLE!

Lunch was an awesome sandwich shop called Snarf's. Delicious toasted sandwiches from the friendliest people. Michelle mentioned that people were indeed friendlier and more engaging out here and this shop was really the first experience we'd had talking to people. It's absolutely true. The guy who took our order conversed with us asking us where we were from. The woman who made my sandwich conversed and joked around with me. Both genuinely interested in what we were saying and both smiling the entire time.

There was a lot of decorative public art around town. Some of it was really cool but the buildings and businesses themselves were usually cooler. There was one building that was a restaurant on the ground floor and the roof called Moonstruck that had a revolving moon (half light/half dark and full of craters) rotating on the roof. "one day we'll eat there" Michelle said"


On the way back I put up a piece but it didn't hold to the wall so I had to scramble to get it on the way out of town. When we went to pick it up someone had dusted it off and propped it up nicely against the wall displaying it. When I pulled over and dashed out to get it I heard a guy sitting nearby let out a disappointed "awwww".  Lovely place.

We hit the highway and headed towards some storm clouds on the horizon. The clouds let loose a few hours in and it got pretty heavy. From what michelle told us there had been a drought in effect for a while and the brown corn fields soaked it up. A bit late to save those corns but it cooled off the air. It got pretty heavy and El Deezy would tug left or right but we stayed steady never having to drop below 65.



Dylan is teaching me the finer points of being a driver and I'm learning more from him than I ever did in High School Driver's Ed. Things like if you're not passing don't cruise in the passing lane and it's generally frowned upon to change lanes in the middle of an intersection. The long hills with huge spaces of flat made for very relaxing driving and I began to understand the idea of driving for pleasure.

 Smiling Asian Robot Giants


There was a moment where the rain let up just enough that we could drive without windshield wipers on and wind would push the sprinkling of water up the glass. With the speed limit 70 on a perfectly straight flat stretch my mind began to zone out. Sigur Ros drifting in from the back of the car, the endless fields and mutli-hued skyline swirling around us, beads of water leaving vapor trails in my vision, no one ahead or behind us for miles it was magical. I started casually letting the wheel sway back and forth across the white dashes on the pavement as a wave of starlings took off and rolled in waves over the horizon. I started thinking this might be a nice place to live. Miles and miles separating one building from the next. Powerlines gently curving along the shoulders of giant robotic skeletons over the hills and plains. Yelling at the top of my lungs with no one around to hear. Going for a walk and setting up a campfire on my own property under endless clouds and stars. Then the smell of manure drifted in through the window and I sneezed on the inside of the windshield. Of course we had no napkins of any kind to wipe it off so I had to stare through it the rest of the drive. It was nice while it lasted.

We hit Iowa City in the evening and found Sarika at her house.  Sarika was a New Jersian who volunteered at the Brodsky Center where I worked so she could keep printing when she wasn't at school. We had never had a chance to hang out though efforts had been made on both parts.  She brought us in and had farmer's market dinner of delicious pasta and sweet corn for us.

Sarika's house if full of artwork or her peers that made me so excited to get a place of our own so I can start filling it up with art. She took us over to her friends' house and there was even MORE beautiful artwork. She was upset that her friends were out of town and told us that we would have gotten along with them splendidly. After being in their house for a few minutes I couldn't help but agree. Their artistic styles, the level of nerd that shown through, and the fact that they had board games in their basement just made me want to know them. We played a game called Katan that Dylan and I had been introduced to by Glynis when we visited Bellingham in April. It's similar to Risk in that you have to claim territories and build up what you have but there's no war. It's a great game and one that we will have to get a hold of once we're settled.

We finished up and walked back to Sarika's place where she threw on this movie called The Secret of Kells. It was gorgeous to watch and requires rewatching on my part due to nodding off once or twice. I woke up at one point and after a few moments Dylan got up to turn the volume down. I didn't understand why until I realized I woke up just in time to see the peaceful finale and credits. I don't even remember the villains showing up or any conflict arising for the matter.









It's been raining since we got here in varying levels but it's peaceful to have a change. We woke up and took Sarika to breakfast at a local diner she hadn't visited yet. As far as our first non-NJ diner goes I have to give it a thumbs up. It's not 24 hours (which in my opinion is mandatory for NJ Diner Status) but the food was fantastic. Dylan and I had huge breakfast burritos and Sarika got giant "I'ma slap you in the face with these" pancakes. all of it delicious and monstrously filling. We walked back and got totally soaked but met a few of Sarika's friends walking the opposite way. We got high fives for being rain braving badasses and made plans to play Katan later.

EXCITING! I just got an email that my ticket to see Purity Ring next wednesday in seattle are set aside. So excite! They just released their LP and we were jamming on it on the way to St. Louis. give it a listen. 

Dylan and I are leaving THE GRID going to make the 12 hour drive to Badlands National Park tomorrow bright and early. There we intend to do a bit of camping, a bit of hiking, maybe some music writing, and it has been decreed that there will be a Brawl in the Badlands Boxing match. I only have two boxing gloves so it might be fighting with one arm tied behind our backs unless we find a sporting good store to get another pair. I've got my fully stocked Army Issue Medic's Bag in case either of us gets a good shot off so don't worry bout that. I'll do my best to film it. We've fought before and I got one damn good shot on dylan that lost him his balance and dropped him to the floor where a solo cup of stale beer and cigarette butts spilled all over him. He's been hot for revenge ever since and I'ma have to really amp myself up to duck under that Big Boy reach of his.

After Badlands comes Yellowstone National park for more hiking and nature-ness. That said, we'll be incommunicado after 7 am tomorrow. We'll have our phones and such for contact but it's a nature trip so we're going to try to avoid using them unless we need them. Deezy hasn't given us any trouble (aside from destroying one of our two keys in the door lock) so it should be okay. I just checked the weather for badlands tomorrow and tuesday.   hooooo boy. Many gatorade bottles will be consumed for certain.

Wish us luck and send us love! We love hearing from everyone. We got this from Dylan's dad this morning. Expains a lot of people we know...

Love you and miss you all!
Wish you were here!